Several BJP voters say the Ram temple sentiment may give the ruling party a fillip but are also aware of the herculean task at hand and concede that it is a daunting electoral contest for Dinesh Singh, who lost to Sonia Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday questioned Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper and summoned her for a second round of questioning in the case on July 25.
'They want to keep the pot boiling all the time.' 'The BJP wants to set a political narrative that the Gandhis are doing wrong things.'
Gandhi undertook the journey Monday night and in visuals and videos, the former party chief, donning his trademark white T-shirt, is seen sitting inside a truck, travelling with one of the drivers and speaking to truck drivers at a dhaba.
In 2019, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi won the seat by a margin 1,67,178 votes against Dinesh Pratap Singh.
Maken is considered a close confidant of Rahul Gandhi and was without any post ever since he resigned as Congress general secretary in charge of Rajasthan a few months ago.
Sources said the Congress Parliamentary Party authorised Gandhi to pick the party's leader in Lok Sabha.
Rahul Gandhi succeeds Sonia Gandhi, who led the party for the last 19 years.
'Modiji and the BJP have hoodwinked the nation by their machinations.' 'We have not been able to convince the electorate about Modiji's deceit.'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned for over 10 hours by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper and was called to depose again on Tuesday, as his party protested across the country, alleging that the Centre was targeting the Opposition by misusing agencies.
The action came after investigations carried out by an inter-ministerial committee formed by the home ministry in 2020.
For the second consecutive day on Friday, several Indian journalists went to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre on 68th Street and York Avenue in Manhattan, New York, where Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has reportedly undergone a surgery
On the eve of Congress President Sonia Gandhi's birthday on December 9, the party handed over a 4-0 defeat to her in the assembly elections in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are majority shareholders of Young Indian with 38 per cent shares held by each one of them. They were questioned for hours by the ED in this case a few years back.
The 75-year-old Congress president, who was supposed to depose before the agency on Thursday, wrote a letter seeking more time on the grounds that the doctors had 'strictly advised her to rest at home following her hospitalisation on account of Covid and lung infection'.
Top Congress leaders attacked the BJP and election commissioners at a rally in Delhi, alleging election irregularities and demanding action against those involved in 'vote chori'.
'This plan was never official. It was there secretly. It was by the high command.'
The last time a non-Gandhi was in the fray from the constituency was in 1998, when Satish Sharma, a close aide of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, contested the polls but lost to the BJP's Sanjaya Sinh.
The new party president, the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to lead the political outfit, takes charge from his mother Sonia Gandhi at a time when the party is facing one of its worst crises, with the Bharatiya Janata Party occupying the centre stage of national and state politics.
He halted for a while to let the ambulance pass.
Businessman Robert Vadra says his wife Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has a bright future in politics and a time will come when people would like to see her at the top position.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'chaiwala' narrative, leading to a sharp response from the BJP.
According to reports, Gandhi will address two public meetings at Mokokchung and Dimapur districts.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi to depose before it on July 21 for questioning in the National Herald newspaper-linked money-laundering case, officials said on Monday.
"The first thing is he is not fit for politics. Probably, the work he should not do, he is doing," Sarma said.
Rahul Gandhi was defeated by BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019 elections.
'The prime minister didn't come to Parliament.' 'But the BJP MP is charging that you wanted to assault the prime minister.' 'Only a person who has the intellect and ideology of the BJP can come up with such bizarre charges.'
Initially, she was summoned by the agency on Monday but it was deferred by a day.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, along with several party leaders, embarked on the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from Kanyakumari on Thursday, marking the beginning of a challenging journey through which the party is seeking to reach out to people and rejuvenate its organisation.
A party leader, who is known to be close to Rahul, said he would be elevated "sooner than you think".
The Congress chief and her son were given bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and one surety each. Three others including Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey were also granted bail.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who was taken ill during a roadshow in Varanasi and forced to return to the national capital, was "stable".
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that India is witnessing the 'death of democracy' and anybody who stands against the onset of dictatorship is 'viciously attacked'.
He termed his grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi as "the love of my life and my second mother".
The BJP has accused the Congress party of fabricating the theory of 'Hindu terror' to undermine Narendra Modi and appease Muslim voters. This statement follows the acquittal of seven individuals in the Malegaon blast case. The BJP demands compensation for the acquitted and an apology from the prosecution.
Rahul Gandhi is learnt to have taken All India Congress Committee general secretaries and state in-charges to task for failing to implement the Sonia Gandhi-driven Burari agenda on corruption. He was also unhappy about their failure to spread awareness about the Centre's flagship programmes in states ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party and to implement the Congress president's five-point action programme, outlined in her speech at the party plenary in Burari.
'It is very, very mystifying that somebody who is a potential prime minister of this country and someone who is such a prominent leader in such a big political party lacks clear public engagement on the big issues of the day,' says Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centre for Policy Research.
'Soniaji is like a mother to the party. We revere her even now'
Rahul Gandhi spent 45 minutes with the Dalai Lama.
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